Croatia Honours Operation Storm Victory, Mourns Deaths

Politicians celebrated the 22nd anniversary of the victorious military Operation Storm, saying it allowed Croatia to become a modern European state, at a commemoration which this year was almost free of extreme nationalist outbursts.

Sven Milekic

BIRN

Zagreb

The Croatian leadership during the national anthem and raising of the flag. Photo: Anadolu Agency/Stipe Majic.

In the presence of the country’s entire political leadership, war veterans and about 8,000 people in the southern town of Knin on Saturday, Croatia officially celebrated its victory over Serb rebels in 1995’s military Operation Storm.

Grabar Kitarovic said that Croatia hopes that one day even Serbs will celebrate Storm as the operation that “ended Greater Serbian aggression”.

“As far as Croatia is concerned, we are sorry for every life, both Serbian and Croatian, and for all who died in Storm and the Homeland War [Croatia’s 1990s war] in general,” she said.

Grabar Kitarovic concluded that she agrees with Knin’s mayor Marko Jelic, who said that officials should pay respect to Serb victims of the operation – several hundred of whom died during and after Storm.

In his speech, Plenkovic said that Storm prevented a potential genocide being committed in the western Bosnian town of Bihac, which at that time was surrounded by Serb forces.

“Storm prevented another Srebrenica [from happening]. It will remain remembered as the biggest victory in Croatia’s history,” he said.

Plenkovic explained that Croatia was seeking “democracy and independence” while bring confronted by “brutal aggression” of the Serbian regime led by Slobodan Milosevic.

He added that there “wouldn’t be” the same present-day Croatia, a member of the EU and NATO, without Operation Storm.

He also said that Croatia is seeking to become a country in which “all minorities are integrated into the society”.

Patriotic songs

Military parade through Knin. Photo: Anadolu Agency/Stipe Majic.

The celebration began in the morning with a military orchestra playing Croatian patriotic songs on Knin fortress, overlooking the town.

Croatian 1990s war veterans on motorbikes, as well as soldiers representing all the troops that took part in Operation Storm paraded through the town centre.

Military planes did aerial acrobatics, while US-made Kiowa Warrior helicopters made their first public appearance since being acquired from the US last year.

The ceremony included the traditional raising of the Croatian flag on Knin fortress – as soldiers did on August 5, 1995 – with the national anthem playing.

This year’s central event took place in the fortress, instead of on the central square, which some critics saw as a way for politicians to avoid potential expressions of dissatisfaction from the public, as a smaller number of people can fit in the fortress.

After the speeches, representatives of units that participated in the operation paraded from the fortress to the central Catholic church, where a service for those who were killed was held.

Thompson will however be playing in the town of Slunj in central Croatia on Saturday evening - an event also sponsored by the state.

In a press statement on Saturday, Croatia’s Serbian National Council NGO expressed its regrets for all the victims of the 1990s war in Croatia.

While stating that with Operation Storm, Croatia “regained its territorial integrity based on the resolution of the UN”, it also said that it is hard to comprehend all the destruction and crimes committed during and after Storm.

“It is our duty to insist that all victims have the right to memory and all people are entitled to a peaceful life,” it said.

The Serbian National Council will commemorate the killed and missing Serbs in the village of Uzdolje near Knin on Sunday.

During Operation Storm, Croatian forces regained territory controlled since late 1991 by rebel Croatian Serbs, who had been helped by the Yugoslav People’s Army and Serbian paramilitaries.

As well as committing large-scale crimes against Croats, the rebel Serb authorities expelled between 200,000 and 250,000 non-Serbs from their unrecognised wartime statelet, the Republic of Serbian Krajina.

After peace talks failed, Croatian special police units and army troops crushed the rebel Serb fighters between August 4 and 7, 1995, and retook all of their territories except ones in eastern Croatia.

The operation led to a humanitarian crisis, as up to 200,000 Serb civilians left Croatia during and after the operation.

Because of this, some NGOs organise alternative commemorations or awareness-raising campaigns, like the Women’s Network of Croatia, which organised an anti-war protest on Friday, which passed off peacefully unlike a similar event last year.

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The Balkan Transitional Justice initiative is a regional initiative which has been supported by the European Commission, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office FCO and Robert Bosch Stiftung that aims to improve the general public’s understanding of transitional justice issues in former Yugoslav countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia).